Tips For Turning Anger Into Productive Action

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Are you one of those people who gets extremely upset over small things? Do you dwell on negative situations way too much?

If so, you need to consider the cost of this lifestyle.

For example, you can spend hours a day thinking about someone who’s cheating on you. Or you can spend years trying to get over a bad marriage or getting fired.

Having a full range of emotions, which means you can feel everything from giddy love to intense anger, is actually indicative of a mentally healthy person. So be thankful if you do feel many types of feelings.

But if your emotions are taking over your life, try managing them wisely. These tips can help:

-Learn to speak or describe what you’re feeling. Do this instead of acting out emotions. You might learn to say, “This makes me very angry,” rather than raging and acting a little crazy. Acting out negative feelings hurts people around you.

-Set aside time to cool your stress. Take a break for half an hour to make a few notes about your feelings. Put your anger and frustrations down on paper. Write in code or use abbreviations that no one else can read.

-Plan some small actions to reverse your stress. This usually involves looking hard for some help from other people. For example, ask your husband to take care of certain calls to get your home repaired. Or ask your sister to help you locate a cleaning person for your elderly father’s home.

-Decide how to take the high road. If you feel like screaming at someone, resist the temptation. You can always kick and rage later, if it’s justified. But initially, try to take some sort of action that will actually get the desired results you’re after.